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THU · 2026-07-23 · 12:53 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0723-95331
News/A 4-hour Elon Musk documentary and a dark CIA comedy lead Ve…
NSR-2026-0723-95331News Report·EN·Human Interest

A 4-hour Elon Musk documentary and a dark CIA comedy lead Venice Film Festival lineup

The 83rd Venice Film Festival, set to begin September 2nd, will feature a four-hour documentary on Elon Musk and Martin McDonagh's CIA comedy "Wild Horse Nine" in its lineup. Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera announced the selections, which include films starring Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, and Javier Bardem, and noted a lighter presence of Hollywood studio films compared to previous years.

By  LINDSEY BAHRAssociated Press (AP)Filed 2026-07-23 · 12:53 GMTLean · CenterRead · 6 min
A 4-hour Elon Musk documentary and a dark CIA comedy lead Venice Film Festival lineup
Associated Press (AP)FIG 01
Reading time
6min
Word count
1 277words
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Quality score
100%
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Briefing Summary

AI-generated
NEWSAR · AI

The 83rd Venice Film Festival, set to begin September 2nd, will feature a four-hour documentary on Elon Musk and Martin McDonagh's CIA comedy "Wild Horse Nine" in its lineup. Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera announced the selections, which include films starring Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, and Javier Bardem, and noted a lighter presence of Hollywood studio films compared to previous years. The festival will open with Danny Boyle's "Ink," a drama about Rupert Murdoch, and will also present documentaries and international films. Lifetime achievement awards will be presented to Ellen Burstyn and George Clooney.

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Article analysis

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Key claims

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Films featuring Robert Pattinson and Penélope Cruz are part of the Venice Film Festival.

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George Clooney will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival.

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A documentary about Oasis will be featured at the Venice Film Festival.

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A dark CIA comedy will also lead the Venice Film Festival lineup.

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A 4-hour Elon Musk documentary is set to lead the Venice Film Festival lineup.

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Full report

6 min read · 1 277 words
A 4-hour Elon Musk documentary and a dark CIA comedy lead Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival lineup 1 of 6 | A documentary about Oasis, a lifetime achievement award for George Clooney, and films featuring Robert Pattinson and Penélope Cruz are among the events due to take place at the Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival in September. (July 23) 2 of 6 | Festival goers pass the red carpet of the 81st edition of the Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Aug. 27, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File) 3 of 6 | This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Sam Rockwell, left, and John Malkovich in a scene from “Wild Horse Nine.” (Diego Araya Corvalán/Searchlight Pictures via AP) 4 of 6 | This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong, and Zo In-sung in a scene from “Possible Love.” (Netflix via AP) 5 of 6 | This image released by StudioCanal shows Jack O’Connell in a scene from “INK.” (StudioCanal via AP) 6 of 6 | This image released by National Geographic shows Jim Morrison in a scene from “Everest: The Other Side.” (Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP) 1 of 6 A documentary about Oasis, a lifetime achievement award for George Clooney, and films featuring Robert Pattinson and Penélope Cruz are among the events due to take place at the Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival in September. (July 23) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 2 of 6 | Festival goers pass the red carpet of the 81st edition of the Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Aug. 27, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File) 2 of 6 Festival goers pass the red carpet of the 81st edition of the Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Aug. 27, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 3 of 6 | This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Sam Rockwell, left, and John Malkovich in a scene from “Wild Horse Nine.” (Diego Araya Corvalán/Searchlight Pictures via AP) 3 of 6 This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Sam Rockwell, left, and John Malkovich in a scene from “Wild Horse Nine.” (Diego Araya Corvalán/Searchlight Pictures via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 4 of 6 | This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong, and Zo In-sung in a scene from “Possible Love.” (Netflix via AP) 4 of 6 This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong, and Zo In-sung in a scene from “Possible Love.” (Netflix via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 5 of 6 | This image released by StudioCanal shows Jack O’Connell in a scene from “INK.” (StudioCanal via AP) 5 of 6 This image released by StudioCanal shows Jack O’Connell in a scene from “INK.” (StudioCanal via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share 6 of 6 | This image released by National Geographic shows Jim Morrison in a scene from “Everest: The Other Side.” (Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP) 6 of 6 This image released by National Geographic shows Jim Morrison in a scene from “Everest: The Other Side.” (Jimmy Chin/National Geographic via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] A four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, Martin McDonagh’s dark CIA comedy “Wild Horse Nine” and films featuring Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem are among the movies premiering at the Venice-film-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="29343" data-entity-type="event">Venice Film Festival in September. Alberto Barbera, the festival’s artistic director, unveiled the lineup Thursday for the 83rd edition of the festival, the first of many in a busy fall film season that culminates in the Hollywood awards showdown. Like the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, the selection is lighter on Hollywood studio films than in years past. “Wild Horse Nine,” starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents in Chile before the 1973 coup, is among the higher-profile titles playing in competition. It will play alongside “Primetime,” in which Pattinson stars as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. The broader slate has anticipated documentaries like Alex Gibney’s “Musk,” a sweeping portrait of the billionaire, and Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile,” which follows Russian independent journalists after they leave the country. Similar to the first part, it runs 355 minutes. The festival’s main competition includes a diverse array of international and American films, like Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” in which sisters Rooney and Kate Mara play identical twins. Also on the program are Florian Zeller’s thriller “Bunker,” with Bardem and Cruz playing a married couple, Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,” Stéphane Brizé’s “A Good Little Soldier” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Look Back,” a coming of age story about two girls who dream of being manga artists. Casey Affleck will be in competition for the first time with “Company,” starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn. Nanni Moretti also returns for the first time since 1989. 4 MIN READ 3 MIN READ 4 MIN READ Notable documentary premieres out of competition include “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger,” Barbara Kopple’s “Union Town,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Everest: The Other Side,” Luca Guadagnino’s seven-hour Bernardo Bertolucci film “Joie de Vivre,” Wim Wenders’ look at architect Peter Zumthor, Russell Crowe’s autobiographical musical concert movie, “What Love Builds,” and Laura Poitras’s short about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, “They’re Here.” Barbera said he expects Noel and Liam Gallagher to attend on behalf of the film, which was directed by Steven Knight and will be in theaters soon after, on Sept. 11. The festival is set to open on Sept. 2 with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” an adaptation of James Graham’s stage play which dramatizes the rise of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. “Ink” is also playing in the main competition and in the running for awards such as the Golden Lion, a prize that is decided upon by a jury led this year by filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal. Other jurors include filmmakers like Kaouther Ben Hania, Johnnie To and Shahrbanoo Sadat and composer Daniel Blumberg.Gyllenhaal has a film playing as well: A Marilyn Monroe-inspired short, “Flesh Impact,” in which Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn “give body and voice to the myth of Marilyn,” Barbera said. The 93-year-old Burstyn will also get a lifetime achievement award from the festival.Venice has in the last 15 years proved a desirable launching pad for Oscar hopefuls, even if not everything breaks through. Last year’s edition had plenty of star power in the lineup, with Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Dwayne Johnson movies among the splashy premieres. But the glow of the festival moment was short-lived: The films, “After the Hunt,” “Jay Kelly” and “The Smashing Machine,” were neither triumphant with audiences in theaters (“Jay Kelly” was a Netflix release) nor with awards voters. Still, there’s usually a best picture nominee in the slate: Last year there were two in “Frankenstein” and “Bugonia.”This year won’t be bereft of a Clooney moment either: The Venice regular is getting a lifetime achievement award. Bahr has been a film writer and critic for The Associated Press since 2014.
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Entities

12 identified
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Keywords & salience

9 terms
venice film festival
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documentary
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elon musk
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film festival lineup
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comedy
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george clooney
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robert pattinson
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penélope cruz
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oasis
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